Tips to Choosing Fonts for Brand

When it comes to creating a design for your brand, the choice of fonts used for both the logo and content is always very important as it can say a lot. For this reason, big and famous brands are extremely specific in terms of their choices of typography. The smaller brands thus can learn a lot from learning the bigger one’s decision making regarding this visual aspect. Today, we will share some tips and trends in choosing fonts for brands among world-class ones. Here they are.

Use Helvetica for Your Brand
This is actually not that surprising, since Helvetica is well known and easy to understand in graphic design. It has a clean, enduring, and simple look which makes it a safe choice ever. The straight look Helvetica has also offers a machine-y vibe, making it an adaptable and neutral choice for various purposes, even for brand that belongs to world-famous companies such as BMW, Target, Toyota, GM, and American Apparel.

Going “Humanist”
It’s particularly true for tech giants, who refer the simple and sparse logos with a less machined aesthetic. This choice of typeface for brand often features the fonts that are similar to Helvetica as you glace it first, but they have far more variability in the shapes, line widths, and angles. Popular type families in this choice is Myriad (used in wide-spread capacities by Walmart, Mashable, Apple, and LinkedIn), Sagoe (Microsoft), Lucida Grande (Facebook), and Open Sans (Google).

Use Serifs
Luxury brands, such as cars and handbags, and banks often prefer using serif fonts for their brand and logo. It is mostly due to the way serif fonts look more easily readable and elegant in printed form. Meanwhile, sans serif fonts are more suitable to read on computer screens. Serif fonts also evoke the typography history. For luxury brands, this type of font face is used to show their pedigree. For banks, serifs are utilized to demonstrate their trustworthiness and longevity to consumers.

What about Custom Typeface?
There are many top brands that prefer using a custom typeface, designed specifically only to their brand. With custom typeface, the branding can be taken to the different level, finishing out the visual language and style distinct from any others. Intel is one of the best examples, which has revealed its first proprietary typeface dubbed as Neo Sans Intel. This typeface was designed in order to evoke the Intel logo; it is also adaptable to the foreign writing systems.

However, for a startup companies, custom typeface may not be the feasible option since it takes time and cost intensively.

Be Different!

Using script in the logo of your brand can easily differentiate yours from your peers. Do like what Budweiser and Coca Cola did! Even so, before you fixed your choice on what font type to use for your logo and design, make sure to consult an expert in graphic and type design first regarding the mood, aesthetic, and values you wish to portray through your brand so you can appeal your potential customers in the right way.